Degeneration

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration. Our degeneration and apostasy. Bates.

2. That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.

3. A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular or organs; hereditary degradation of type.

4. The thing degenerated. [R.] Cockle, aracus, . . . and other degenerations. Sir T. Browne. Amyloid degeneration, Caseous degeneration, etc. See under Amyloid, Caseous, etc.